Unresolved
by Fallen Ark Angel
Summary: Natsu has something he wants to give Lucy. Lisanna has her doubts about it. - One-shot.


Unresolved

"Hey, Lisanna," the woman heard, making her glance over her shoulder and frown. "What are you doin' all the way out here? I've been looking everywhere for you."

Slowly, she grinned as Natsu came closer before turning to look back at the stream before her. "I just had to get out of the house and away from- What are you so happy about?"

It was clear as day too, on Natsu's face, that he was all pumped about something or other. And when he joined her on the ground, he was so pumped about whatever it was that their elbows bumped.

"And where's Happy?" she continued.

"He and Lucy kicked me out of the apartment."

"That's made you so excited?"

"Nope," he said with a shake of his head. "Because it was part of the plan."

"What plan, Natsu? What are you talking about?"

"See," he said as he began to rummage around in his pocket. "Me and Happy decided that I needed to get away from Lucy for a few hours. She's pretty clingy."

"Lucy," Lisanna repeated. "Out of the two of you, it's Lucy that's clingy? When you just moved yourselves right into her apartment, drag her along on all your jobs-"

"Well, when you tell the story like that, it doesn't sound that way, no," he agreed. "But the way I tell it-"

"How do you spin it then?"

"You mean spin some truth on it?"

"Natsu-"

"We had to move in with her. She was all alone and lonely and stuff. And who would eat her food if it wasn't for us?"

"Uh, her?"

"Bah! And I'm helping her pay her rent by dragging her out on jobs."

"But not by chipping in for the rent on the apartment that you're-"

"Hey," he complained. "You wanna hear my good news or not?"

"Might as well," she said, though it was hard to hide her grin. If anyone could make her feel better, it was Natsu. Leaning forwards so she could rest her head on her pulled up knees, she said, "What is it?"

Grinning real big once more, he produced a little black box from his pocket. "I'm gonna ask Lucy to marry me!"

For a moment, Lisanna didn't know what to say. Or feel. Or think. So she went with only staring at him.

Still, he was clearly waiting for some sort of response, so slowly, she asked, "When?"

"Soon, probably," he said. "Before I lose the ring. Happy thinks that's highly likely. Either that or one of us will accidentally tell her. That seems pretty likely too."

"How did you afford it?" she asked. Both Lucy and Natsu never seemed to have any form of money savvy, so the idea that even combined they had enough for an engagement ring seemed unlikely. The two could hardly even afford to eat most of the time (though Happy was more the cause of breaking the bank on that end). "I mean-"

"That's the thing, see?" He moved to open the box. "It's not really that expensive. And I've been saving a little from jobs now and again. I- Uh-oh."

"Uh-oh? What- Oh, Natsu."

"How could it be gone?" Frowning down at the box, he jumped up to his feet. "I mean-"

"You cannot be serious."

"Hmmm." He looked around, as if it could somehow be in the forest around them. "You think it's in the river?"

"Why would it be in the river? Have you gone near the river?"

"No."

"Then why-"

"Oh, hey. I ran into Gray and Juvia when I was leaving the jewelry shop," he said. "You think they stole it?"

"Did you show it to them?"

"Of course not! Why would I show anyone before I showed you?"

That made Lisanna blush as she slowly got to her feet. "Well, we have to retrace your steps then. Did you go anywhere else?"

"I went to the guildhall, to find you, but then Mirajane told me you were at home. So I stopped by your place, but Bickslow said that you were out here, so-"

"So you basically walked all over Magnolia and the forest. Great."

"Hmmm."

"Natsu," she complained. "How many jewels did you spend on this? It's important. And now you lost it. Lucy's going to kill you when she finds out."

"Then Lucy can't find out. That I lost it, I mean. Could you imagine the teasing her and Happy will give me if they do?"

"Knowing Lucy, I think she'd be more concerned over the fact that you lost something that could no doubt pay rent for a few months."

"What are you saying?" Natsu stopped looking around then and just took to staring at his best friend. "That I shouldn't have bought it?"

"No. I mean, clearly you thought about this for awhile, right?" She was skeptical about that part herself, but it seemed to be the case. "You said that you had been saving that money up and I know that it must have taken-"

"Oh, no. Me and Happy came up with the idea of me asking her to marry me last week."

"What? Then how-"

"We were saving up money to buy cool stuff. Like…motorcycles."

"Motorcycles."

"One for me and one for him."

"Natsu," she said slowly. "Happy can't drive a motorcycle."

"Which is what we regretfully realized. We figured Luce could ride the other one. Or you, if you wanted. Do you want to?"

"You don't have them. Now you have a ring. Or you had a ring."

"That I did."

Groaning, Lisanna said, "You can't ask a girl to marry you after only thinking about it for what? A few days? Two weeks?"

"Why not?" Natsu, growing bored with the conversation, took to staring at the river. Man, he'd wasted the day hunting Lisanna down and getting Lucy her ring. He and Happy should have gone fishing. "I mean, Luce and I already, like, like each other a bunch. We love each other. And we live together. And now, if she gets kicked out of her apartment, she can just go to me and Happy's house. We still have that. See? Backup plan."

"That's not-"

"Lisanna," he scolded, looking back to her once more. With a finger raised, as if to scold her, he said, "You should be happy for me. I'm marrying, like, the coolest person ever. I mean, sure, she nags and yells and…and… A lot of other stuff. But she's Lucy. So I put up with it. But here you are, telling me I shouldn't marry her-"

"I didn't say that."

Did she?

"Then what are you saying?"

What was she saying?

She was stuck.

"I just… Right now, I really think that we need to find that ring and go from there."

"Good plan," he said. "That's why I go to you with these things."

"So," she prompted. "Let's go back to the jewelry shop and look around there. I mean, I'm still unsure how it ended up outside of the black box, but-"

"That's it!" Natsu fist pumped before reaching into his left pocket. "I thought that, you know, I'm so bad at remember where I put things, that if I left the box and the ring together, I'd lose them both. But if I separated then, I'd probably only lose one."

Lisanna blinked. Then she giggled. "You're so crazy, Natsu."

He produced the ring from his pocket, his grin absolute then. "There. Look at this and tell me it's not better than having a motorcycle."

"It's very nice," she agreed as she took the piece of jewelry into her own hand. Natsu looked so proud of himself too. Passing it back to him, she had to smile at the look on his face as she said, "Lucy's gonna love it."

"Hope so," he agreed as he pocketed it once more. "You wanna come with me to tell her?"

"Uh, no," she said. "I really think that's a personal thing, don't you?"

"See, Lisanna? That's why I know to always go to you about things like this." He hugged her then, a pretty big one too. She just allowed herself to pat him on the back, that coiled feeling in her stomach not dissipating. She was happy for them, wasn't she? Of course she was. But…still… When he let her go, he was still smiling. "I'mma head right home. So I don't lose the ring again. No stops! Except…well…maybe for some ice cream or-"

"Natsu."

"Right. No stops. Not even to bother Erza."

"You-"

"I'm not going to. Even though I've really wanted to go down to the guild for a game of darts-"

"Do you wanna ask Lucy with a ring or without? Because knowing you, if you do either of those three things, it's going to be without."

"Right." That time, he reached out to pat her on the head, eyes alight with excitement. "I'll see you tomorrow, okay?"

"Maybe."

"No, definitely."

After he was gone, Lisanna found that her peace had been tarnished and figured she'd better head back to her own apartment and face her own challenge, i.e. Bickslow.

"Lissy," he greeted when she arrived, never one to read body language well. "I know you were all pissed at me about it before, but look! Isn't it great?"

He was there, of course, in the living room. Err, well, technically in the doorway to the bedroom, where he'd hung up the thing they'd been fighting about.

"Mama," his babies called out, all coming to slam against her in their standard welcoming. "Lissy."

"See?" Bickslow was actually upside down then, hanging from a chin up bar he'd installed in the doorway, his grin not fading one bit. When he'd come home with it, Lisanna had demanded he take it back to the store and get a refund. Then they fought about all the stupid purchases one another had made over the six months that they'd lived together and, in the end, she went to clear her head and he apparently went through with his decision.

Sigh.

"I can do all sorts of stuff," he said as she just shut the door behind her before coming closer. "Pull ups, chin ups, hang upside and do crunches. I'm amazing! And so is my little bar here. And I can get why you think this is just another one of my- Lissy."

Even though he was upside down, she came over to hug him, which was actually really awkward for them both.

"Now, I'm not one to turn down a blow," he said slowly. "But this-"

"Shut up, Bickslow." And that was over. Letting him go, she added, "Before I shove you off that thing."

"Kid, you're not getting all the benefits I'm going to get from this. Think of the core strength!"

"You're gonna get a head rush."

"You're gonna get a head rush," he retorted.

"You know what? Fine. Have fun getting down."

"Lisanna," he complained, staring after her. "Don't leave again. Me and the babies get lonely."

"Lonely," they agreed. "Lisanna."

"I'm not leaving," she told them as she headed into the kitchen. "I'm just…"

Ugh. Natsu had completely screwed her day. And why did it matter to her then that he was going to marry Lucy? At all? It shouldn't. If anything, she should be feeling happy for him. Very happy for him. After all, they'd been best friends since they were children. And it wasn't like she had no idea that the two of them…that…even in Edolas, they'd been…

There was a crash then, back in the living room. And then the sound of Bickslow and the dolls cackling.

"See? Got down no problem."

Rolling her eyes, she called out there to him, "If you keep that up, our downstairs neighbors will complain."

"And? Let 'em. I put up with hearing all that ravenous sex they have. At least I'mma invite them to workout with me. Do they even invite us to an orgy? No."

"Bickslow-"

"'sides," he said as she heard him get up, the babies making their own little noises while they were at it. "I'mma get better at getting down as time goes by. Bet."

"You're probably going to never use that thing past tomorrow and the landlord's going to yell at us when we remove it about the holes in the wood."

"Bah!"

"Stop…making bah noises at me."

"Don't tell me how to live my life, woman."

"Mama." The dolls were coming into the kitchen too then, to check on her. "Mama."

"She's fine, babies," Bickslow complained as he came into the room as well. "I'm the one that's being treated so poorly."

"Oh, bull, Bickslow." She was over at the fridge then, peering in. "Just shut up. And go back in there and play on your little bar for, oh, the next few hours. Then get bored with it like everything else."

"I don't get bored with the babies." He came to tap her on the head. "Or you. Normally. But right now-"

"Just leave me alone."

"You're sure in a crummy mood." Reaching over her head, he grabbed a beer out of the fridge before going to sit on the counter. "Somethin' happen? The Salamander came by looking for you. Is he the one that got you all pissed off? Huh? Well, me and the babies'll just have to go straighten that out, yeah?"

"Yeah," his enchanted dolls agreed while Lisanna, giving up on finding anything to eat, shut the fridge and turned to look at her boyfriend once more.

"You're beyond on my nerves today."

"So what did Natsu want?" he insisted. "Lissy?"

"He wanted to show me something."

"What?"

"Bickslow-"

"What?" the babies insisted, coming to circle around her. "What, Lissy?"

"You have to promise not to tell," she said, speaking to their imagined father. When he grinned, tongue falling from his mouth, she refused to return it. "I mean it."

"I swear on your future grave." Then he winked. "Or your past one, even."

"Bickslow-"

"I won't tell, alright? So just say whatever it is."

With a sigh, Lisanna said, "He showed me a ring that he bought for Lucy. The engagement ring."

"Gross," the seith said, his babies mimicking. "Who gets married anymore?"

"Anyways," she went on, "he's going to probably ask her tonight and just wanted me to know, I guess."

"How come?"

"I dunno, Bickslow. If Freed was proposing to a girl, wouldn't he tell you first?"

He snickered. "Sure, I guess. That's sure be a fun marriage."

"You know what I mean."

"The bride of Laxus. That's what he hopes to be." More snickers.

"You can't tease him if he's not even here."

"Understanding woman she'd be. Very understand. Some sort of arrangement-"

"Could we get back to the point?"

"Sorry," he said. "I was just envisioning that wedding."

"It was just an example. That's all."

Jumping off the counter, Bickslow chugged some of his drink before saying, "I don't get it. How come you're in such a bad mood then?"

"I'm not in a bad mood."

"Well, you sure ain't in a good one!"

"I'm just… I dunno. I…don't see them as married. Together. I guess."

"Why not?" He drank some more of his beer. "I mean, they're always all on one another and stuff. What's more to being married than that?"

"I just said that I don't know, Bickslow." She was taking that _tone_ with him again. The one that he hated so much. Bah. "I just…don't really like it, is all."

"Well," he said, turning from her then and heading off, back out of the kitchen. "You stay here and be sore over some stupid childhood crush while I go play on my new- I mean, work out heavily. 'kay?"

"I'm not sore over-"

"You clearly are." His back was to her then, but she could tell by the way he was speaking, all clipped, and the way he held his shoulders, all tensed, that he was at least some what bothered by the idea of her still pining after Natsu. "Which ain't cool by the way, kid. I mean, I thought you were over all of that?"

"I am over it," she said. It wasn't as if it were the best kept secret in the world, that when they were younger, she had loved Natsu. And maybe even still did. But she'd have liked to think that it was also very obvious that she was also very into Bickslow. He wasn't a secondary prize, not even close. She enjoyed being with the seith and planned to continue to be with him, regardless of what happened between Natsu and Lucy. "Do you hear me?"

"Yeah, yeah."

"Bickslow, seriously. That's not what's bothering me. At all. I'm with you. Not Natsu."

"Yeah," he retorted as she followed him, the babies taking to chasing one another around the room. "Because you can't be with the Salamander, right?"

"Wrong. You know that. It's nothing like that. At all. I-"

"Whatever, Lisanna. Just-"

"No." She rushed to grab his arm, knowing that if they didn't get the whole thing sorted out then, he'd probably stay miffed at her for at least a week. "Bickslow, it's not like that."

"Leave me alone, kid." He finished his beer then and, instead of just going to throw it away, he crushed it before tossing it on the ground. He'd get around to picking it up…eventually… "I wanna go work out on my bar, yeah? So just…go back to being all pissed or whatever. I don't care. So you love the damn Salamander. No one gives a shit, Lisanna. Even he doesn't."

That made her let go of his arm, though her glare was absolute. "You're such a jerk."

"Me? I'm the jerk? When my girlfriend comes in here moping because some guy that has, for the record, _never been interested in her_ is getting married to someone else? Someone that he clearly loves? Yeah, I'm the jerk, Lisanna. Whatever."

"What do you want from me, Bickslow? I didn't come home, complaining about it. You asked. And yeah, I am a little…sad that Natsu and Lucy… It's just because it's going to change things, okay? Not because I want it to be me or something. It's not that at all."

"But isn't it?"

"No!" She was indignant then and determined to convince not only him that she wasn't just jealous, but also herself. "It's not. And how dare you say that? I-"

"Nope. Not this time. You're not turning this back on me." Shaking his head, his eyes flashed green and, for a moment, she was fearful, if only a little. He rarely wore his visor around the house, so she could see his irises perfectly. "Are they gonna have to bar you from the wedding? So you don't try and break it up? Run off with Natsu? Huh?"

"You're being a dick."

"And you're being a bitch, but you don't see me-"

"Never mind." She tried to walk passed him then, off to the bedroom, but it was his turn to grab her arm. "Hey-"

"No," he said. "You're not running off. We're-"

"You're the one that doesn't wanna talk about it!"

"I don't wanna hear you deny-"

"That I used to have a thing for Natsu? Who was, like, my very best friend? Ever? Yeah, Bickslow, I did. I'm so sorry that I dared to have feelings for someone other than you. Considering I came into this relationship with you as my only boyfriend ever when you'd slept with, what? Six other women before? I really don't see me as being the bad one here. Or are you just that childish that you can't accept-"

"There you go again." He released her arm, but his face was so dark that she wasn't willing to walk away. He'd have just followed her anyhow. "You always turn this stuff back on me. When you're the one-"

"I don't love Natsu! Not anymore. Not like that, stupid. I love you. How hard is that to get through your skull?"

"So what happens then, Lisanna? If Lucy tells him no and they break up?"

"I don't know. Lucy leaves and finds a new guild or something? They make the rest of us miserable with their fighting? Natsu acts oblivious for a day and then actually forgets? What are you asking me?"

He wasn't playing along. Keeping his eyes locked with hers, he said, "If they broke up and he tried to come onto you-"

"I'd tell him no."

"Would you?"

"Yes! There's not even any thought into it. How many times do I have to say it? I love you, idiot. Enough to have this stupid conversation, which, by the way, is going to have repercussions."

"What do you mean?"

"We're going to go over every relationship, every one night stand, every-"

"What? No. That's stupid."

"This is stupid. And it's only fair."

"Lisanna-"

"I'm the one that's only ever loved two guys. And only ever truly, actually loved one. You."

For a moment, he was quiet. Then, when he tried to start speaking, she cut him off.

"But you on the other hand-"

"We are not going over my life. I'm not the one on trial."

"You are now." She was feeling a little better then, her head clearing up slightly as she said, "I mean, how many other mothers have your babies had?"

"What kinda question-"

"Mama," they all cried out then, coming over them. "Mama three."

"Bickslow," she complained.

"They're joking. Knock it off, babies!"

But the dolls were laughing then, feeling the tension ease slowly out of the room. Coming over to Lisanna, her favorite of the five, Pappa, landed on her head while the rest kept repeating Bickslow's sentence ad nauseam.

"I don't love Natsu," she told him after a moment or two had passed. "I...don't like when things change. And this is going to change things. A lot."

"How though? I mean-"

"They're my best friends. Both of them. And now they're going to be married. And marriage just… It just changes things. There's no getting around it. I don't know how. I mean, no one else has done it yet, right? Other than Bisca and Alzack. Think of how different they are."

"I guess so."

"I don't wanna be with anybody, but you. I'm in love with you."

Then, she knew that it was all fixed, as he looked her dead in the eyes and asked, "Can I keep my pull up bar then?"

She narrowed her own before deciding after the day she'd had and the ones that were no doubt to come, it was the least of her problems.

"Fine," she said, making the man grin, tongue tumbling right back out of his mouth. All better. "But you're going to use it, Bickslow."

"Yes, ma'am." He even gave her a salute.

"I mean it."

"I hear ya."

"No, seriously, I-"

"Lissy." He came closer and took her head in his hands. Pappa flew off as his father leaned down to press a kiss against her forehead. Against it, he mumbled, "I'll use it. Alright?"

She nodded when he let her go even though she knew that no, he wouldn't. It would become just another one of their worthless purchases and, at the end of the month, when they were asking Mirajane and Laxus for rent money, it'd come back to bite them in the butt.

"Are you gonna show me then?" she asked. "How many pull ups you can do? In one sitting?"

"Kid, you better go ahead and write a will." He reached up to grab the bar when he got over to it. "'cause I'm about to blow your mind."

"Uh-huh."

"I am."

And, when he could only do twenty pull ups before collapsing onto the ground and claiming he was going to die, she just went to get him some water and sat down there on the floor with him, rubbing his back soothingly, the babies swarming around in their own concern.

So maybe she did love Natsu, if only a little. She probably always would. And fine, it did hurt to see a childhood dream go up in smoke, but was that her fault? No. She knew that no matter what, she was with Bickslow. Case closed. Hopefully forever. She loved him. And he loved her.

What else did there need to be?

"Mmmm," Bickslow moaned as he laid with his head in her lap, eyes shut, still recovering. "Think they'll have steak at their reception? I like steak."

"You'll never know," she said. "I'm not going to be invited, remember? I might break the whole thing up."

"Nah," he sighed. "I wouldn't let ya."

"No?"

He shook his head, if only slightly. "I'd hold you down myself, yeah? Ain't ever gonna let anyone else have you. You're mine, kid. You know that?"

Leaning down, she pressed a kiss to his head with a sigh of her own. "Yeah, Bicks. I know."


End file.
